SLCDs are known, for example, from EP 0 131 216 B1; DE 34 23 993 A1; EP 0 098 070 A2; M. Schadt and F. Leenhouts, 17th Freiburg Congress on Liquid Crystals (8.-10.04.87); K. Kawasaki et al., SID 87 Digest 391 (20.6); M. Schadt and F. Leenhouts, SID 87 Digest 372 (20.1); K. Katoh et al., Japanese Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 26, No. 11, L 1784-L 1786 (1987); F. Leenhouts et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 50 (21), 1468 (1987); H. A. van Sprang and H. G. Koopman, J. Appl. Phys. 62 (5), 1734 (1987); T. J. Scheffer and J. Nehring, Appl. Phys. Lett. 45 (10), 1021 (1984), M. Schadt and F. Leenhouts, Appl. Phys. Lett. 50 (5), 236 (1987) and E. P. Raynes, Mol. Cryst. Liq. Cryst. Letters Vol. 4 (1), pp. 1-8 (1986). The term SLCD here covers any more highly twisted display element with a value for the twist angle of between 160.degree. and 360.degree., such as, for example, the display elements of Waters et al. (C. M. Waters et al., Proc. Soc. Inf. Disp. (New York)(1985)(3rd Intern. Display Conference, Kobe, Japan), STN-LCDs (DE-A 35 03 259), SBE-LCDs (T. J. Scheffer and J. Nehring, Appl. Phys. Lett. 45 (1984) 1021), OMI-LCDs (M. Schadt and F. Leenhouts, Appl. Phys. Lett. 50 (1987), 236), DST-LCDs (EP-A 0 246 842) or BW-STN-LCDs (K. Kawasaki et al., SID 87 Digest 391 (20.6)).
SLCDs of this type are distinguished, in comparison to standard TN displays, by significantly better steepnesses of the electrooptical characteristic line and consequently better contrast values, and by significantly less angle dependence of the contrast. Of particular interest are SLCDs having very short response times, in particular also at relatively low temperatures. In order to achieve short response times, the viscosities, in particular, of the liquid-crystal mixtures were hitherto optimized using usually monotropic additives having relatively high vapor pressure. However, the response times achieved were not adequate for all applications.
In order to achieve a steep electrooptical characteristic line, the liquid-crystal mixtures should have relatively large values for K.sub.33 /K.sub.11 and relatively small values for .DELTA..epsilon./.epsilon..perp..
In addition to optimization of the contrast and the response times, further important requirements are made of mixtures of this type:
1. A broad d/p window
2. High long-term chemical stability
3. High electrical resistance
4. Low frequency dependence of the threshold voltage.
The parameter combinations achieved are still far from adequate, in particular for high-multiplex STNs (1/400). This is in some cases attributable to the fact that the various requirements are affected in opposite manners by material parameters.
There thus continues to be a great demand for SLCDs having very short response times and at the same time a large operating temperature range, high characteristic line steepness, good angle dependence of the contrast and low threshold voltage which meet the above-mentioned requirements.